


Ant-iclimax

by Dragoneisha



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Divergent Timelines, Emotional Baggage, Gen, Not A Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28849878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragoneisha/pseuds/Dragoneisha
Summary: Tony talks Scott Lang into helping him hold up truth, justice, and the American way - at the expense of fighting America's mascot.The world changes in slight, subtle ways because of it. He should have, in the end, kept to his original morals.
Relationships: Scott Lang & Tony Stark
Kudos: 6





	Ant-iclimax

“Why me?”

Tony doesn't turn to look at him. Scott Lang is a man of many, many (many, many, many…) words, and he'll elaborate on the question.

“Seriously.” He takes a step towards Tony. The sharp gasps and clapping of other parents, back on the right side of the bleachers watching Scott’s kid’s soccer game, reaches his ears. “You know I'm - like, a career criminal, right? That's my whole deal. I stole a lot of things from a lot of people. I'm not exactly big on government surveillance, especially given it’s the reason they found me in the first place. The -” Scott splutters, clearly unable to sort out his words. Tony is reminded, at some level, of himself, when he's a little more manic and a little less concerned with how he comes across.

Scott Lang, he thinks, almost jealously, is a man who is not very concerned with how he comes across. Tony wishes for that ignorance.

“The Sogobbi thing -”

“Sokovia Accords.”

“Whatever, dude, I clearly don't care what it's called!” He flaps his hands. “Look, man. Even if I wasn't a very unwilling member of the nickel and dimes club, I'm not into the idea that some random government cronies get to say who can and can't use their powers, and if you mess up, you're in cuffs.”

“What, you want someone with no oversight doing whatever they want instead?” Tony pushes, prods. This isn't the avenue that's going to get him what he wants; that's pretty clear. But it's the one that'll get him closer. He doesn't care how many right turns he has to make - this matters. It matters enough that he'll use all the business sense he actually cared enough to remember, and that's saying something.

It's not a bad avenue, though. If he had time to take a stroll down it, Tony can tell that Scott may even be swayed. He hesitates, brows furrowing in the way someone’s does when they're willing to listen.

Even if they don't know it yet.

“I - clearly, no,” Scott says, rubbing at his side. Old wound, maybe. “I don't think anybody wants that.”

“Which is why the Accords exist.”

“Would exist,” Scott corrects. Damn. Caught like a fly. If you speak of something like it's already come into existence, it becomes way easier to make it do that. “I don't know. I haven't read them -”

“They're legal jargon,” Tony says, dismissing the idea. “I gave you the basic rundown.”

“But I know you're not being honest with me, and I don't know how, which is worse.”

The two men look at each other. Tony says nothing, and Scott seems to take the moment to collect his thoughts. ADHD much? Christ, the guy needs a Xanax. So does Tony. Everybody should take a handful of pills and just talk this thing out - Cap’n Crunch Nazi Bones is way overreacting on this, and it's just as a precaution that he wants to take Scott along at all. But he's still going to. He knows he has him, Tony just has to figure out how.

Scott chews his lower lip. Tony watches him. He might want to say more, who knows.

He doesn't, though, so Tony continues. Eventually. “It isn't a perfect solution.” He wouldn't admit that to Steve. “But it's the solution we have. We can change it some once people have agreed to it and we've seen how it works, if it doesn't go like we want it. But we need responsibility.”

Scott laughs at him, which, he has to admit, hurts his ego.

“Bold of you to say. You're a billionaire - you aren't responsible to anyone but yourself. You can buy your way out of prison. So can anybody with money and powers - this is just going to hurt people who don't have that.”

“Would you rather it hurts your daughter?”

Scott’s head whips towards Tony. He's got him. It was a shot in the dark, but they're at her soccer game, he clearly loves her. He pushes forward.

“People died because we messed up last time,” Tony says, as serious as he can be. This isn't jokey barbs traded back and forth anymore - this is a delicate operation. “If we did as well as we could, then we did. But if we go out trying to save people and hurt them, then we should be in trouble, and we would deserve it.”

“And what does that have to do with my daughter.”

“It's not hard to find out who you are.” A pause. “With the Accords, people who would go after your daughter - people like that guy you had so much trouble with - would get locked up. There's no gray area of the law anymore. It's all laid out.”

“And if you operate without a license you get thrown in jail.”

“Alternative is every schmuck with a Chitauri gun goes crazy on the guy who cut them in line.”

“No it isn't.”

“It isn't, but it's close enough.” He snaps his fingers. “Chop-chop, Scott. I need your backing on this. Yeah, it’s about the Accords, but it’s also about bringing somebody to justice. Rogers has a blind spot when it comes to Barnes. We take him in and fix the problem.”

“With violence.”

“By helping him. By bringing justice.”

Scott hesitates. For a moment, Tony thinks he made a mistake - was too open in how bad he needs the help, pushed too hard on the jail thing. That's a sore spot, he should have known better.

Scott swears under his breath. 

“Fine. Just because we need some oversight. Some! Even for Captain America. But I expect you to keep your word on the changing shit that doesn't work thing.”

Privately, Tony doesn't keep his hopes up.

______________

Scott comes with them. He's upset about facing off against the Captain America, but he gave his word and he isn't one to break it. He tells his daughter he loves her, Tony bribes his parole officer, which Scott apparently finds “concerning” and is worried about the “stability of our legal system if people are bribed that easily”.

He didn't really bribe him. Tony just said he did, for reasons he himself doesn't understand. Some childish impulse. Some last grasp for silliness when he's about toout to do battle against someone who could have been his friend. Like a schoolyard fight with infinitely larger consequences.

Tony’s never been in a schoolyard fight. He has no idea if that’s reasonable.

They head off Rogers and his team, which he apparently has. Tony keeps an eye on Romanoff, but she’s as bought in as anyone, looks like. 

Rogers is certain he’s doing the right thing. Well, so is Tony. You’d think that Captain America would be in favor of a little regulation, being born in the 1900s and all. They did that back then, right? 

There’s no one who understands why they need the Accords more than Tony does. Readying to fight, he thinks about it some, but there’s nothing much to think about. Rogers thinks his thing. Tony thinks his. If Rogers won’t even let his crazy friend get what he deserves for bombing a goddamn UN meeting, this is never going to work out.

Sure it hurts, but he’s hurt a lot these last few years. He’ll get over it.

It’s almost anticlimactic. The battle is tough and hard and everyone’s pulling punches, but Rogers is way outnumbered. Once Vision gets in the way of Wanda, it’s just Barton, Wilson, Roger’s crazy boyfriend, and Rogers himself. They’re all talented, dangerous individuals, but they’re outnumbered pretty bad, and Barton’s just a guy who’s got good aim. 

Now, that good aim does plant a shock arrow right in Tony’s chest, making his whole suit reboot, but it’s not “unmaking reality”. Lang manages to catch the corner of Wilson’s wing, and he apologizes twice while he’s bending it, clearly unhappy about having to do it at all. Wilson tears up his hand, if the shouting is any indication, but there’s nothing Falcon can do about it. One down.

Despite being just a guy who can shoot pretty well, Barton holds off Natasha for a shockingly long time. He keeps zipping to new places, pursued by Natasha and Rhody. A near miss cuts a lock of Natasha’s hair, but she grits her teeth and pursues with even more fervor, catching Barton in hand-to-hand combat. They aren't evenly matched, but Barton knows her well enough to scramble just out of reach, and she isn't trying to kill him.

She'll get him. Rhodes needs to help Tony. He signals for it, getting an affirmative.

Black Panther pins down Barnes pretty bad, and if Rogers didn’t keep helping him, he’d probably be dead as doornails. The claws tear deep into that metal arm of his, sending sparks flying, but Barnes throws him off. Nonetheless, no Cat lands on his feet and goes for the throat once more.

Tony, however, keeps pressing the advantage. He comes in a little late (stupid shock arrow) but he’s able to free Rhody of a net (net arrow??) and press on Rogers.

Lang is huge. He gets really big, which Tony knew, but he didn't expect that big. That means he can catch Hawkeye like a lizard on a sunny railing and hold him until Romanoff gets to him. Falcon still tries to fight, but Lang managed to put him on top of a building he can't get down from. Turns out that's pretty hard to deal with when you can't fly.

They should have brought containment measures. Short-sighted of them not to. Tony had just been hoping not to need them.

Barton gets zip-tied down by Romanoff, who thought seven steps ahead, and then she’s out towards Barnes. Now that Tony and Rhody are taking good shots at Rogers, T’Challa has him on the defensive, scrambling away with a sparking arm and a concerning wound in his side. 

It comes to Tony that the Panther wants Barnes dead.

It’ll be fine. He won’t actually kill him. And a shield nearly takes his head off, so he has more important things to focus on right now.

He sees Natasha run - she’s booking it. Faster than maybe he’s ever seen her. He’s too busy battling Rogers to do anything about it, but she streaks towards Black Panther and Barnes like black lightning.

The Panther stares down at Barnes, injured and snarling. Had he a tail like his namesake, it would flicker, back and forth, as he considers him. His claws are enough to kill him. The thought is clearly weighing on him, and Barnes cannot defend himself well enough to stay alive forever. 

“It wasn’t me,” Barnes grits out, like teeth are being pulled. “I’m trying to find the man who did it. I didn’t do it.”

T’Challa stalks forward. Seeing it, Rogers tries to fight past Rhody and Tony, but Rhody manages to unbalance him, and Tony gets a knee between his shoulders, and Rhody pins his legs.

“No!” Rogers struggles - looks up at Tony, who has a strange wrench in his chest. “He’s going to kill him. Tony, please!”

“I can’t let you go.”

“It wasn’t him!”

“We all saw the footage, Steve -”

“He’s going to kill him! Tony, that’s Bucky!”

“Not anymore.” Tony is firm, but shaken.

It’s Natasha that gets there. She skids to a stop next to Barnes, hands half-up, looking at T’Challa. She speaks in rushed, sharp Russian. After a moment’s pause, the Winter Soldier responds, his consonants rounded by pain and slurring. 

Whatever he says, it’s something that changes her mind. (Somewhere in the back of his mind, Tony remembers that Natasha is one of Steve’s best friends, and that she’s the one who brought down SHIELD - brought down HYDRA.)

Natasha looks at T’Challa. He looks back, serene. 

“He didn’t do it, but he could have.” She looks at him, emanating quiet strength. “He knows who did.”

“And if he is lying?”

“He is not.”

T’Challa looks down at Barnes. He hasn’t dared to move, probably for fear of igniting some stoked killing instinct. His chin lifts, vaguely, as if daring T’Challa to strike. Rogers, under Tony’s knee, doesn’t even dare to breathe. Neither does Tony. Everyone else has been subdued - this is the end.

If he moves to strike, Tony doesn’t know if he can get there in time. Natasha will be the only thing standing between T’Challa and the man who killed his father.

“... I am better than you,” T’Challa says, firm. “I will be better than you, and you will see justice at more hands than mine.”

Tony breathes a sigh of relief. Rogers struggles again, manages to throw him off, but Rhody keeps a grip on him until Tony can grab him again. 

The team is taken into custody. It is not easy in the slightest, but Rogers seems to just be relieved Barnes isn’t dead. They try to get him medical attention as well, but judging by the shit he flips when someone with a needle comes too close to him, this isn’t going to work super well. He gets bandaged and given iodine at best.

Steve keeps talking about another party, a Zemo. tony listens and learns, researching the character, but it really isn’t his problem, and he has a media circus to calm down so the criminals who are his friends don’t get something like a death penalty.

FRIDAY turns up a few… interesting responses. He shares them with the team, but that’s it. Zemo is a real person, and a real problem, and he did, in fact, frame Barnes, which is information he’ll have to show the committee and he does quickly. He shares the information with Natasha. Natasha takes it in stride. She knew already.

It’s a mix of a thousand emotions to put his friends in the Raft, but it is what it is. They are sequestered all along one floor. He doesn’t visit. Natasha does. Scott does.

As does, shockingly, T’Challa.

It’s less than a day later when he hears the news that Scott Lang, Natasha Romanoff, and T’Challa himself have taken the two’s strange advice and disappeared into the aether, along with every prisoner they’d taken. Great. 

They return with a half-dead Zemo and a video that Tony doesn’t want to watch, but with none of the escapees and without T’Challa. Scott is the weak link, so he presses on it. He didn’t have much of a part in it, as it turns out, but he knows Rogers busted out everyone once he was out. Barnes was in bad shape last he saw - maybe dying.

T’Challa took Barnes, after dropping off Zemo, and Natasha is badly injured as well. She loses her arm in the next week. She makes a joke, in the aftermath, about how now she and Barnes match.

Eventually, Tony watches the video Zemo left for Rogers and Barnes. Natasha said it was important. She also told him to watch it alone. So he does.

Bucky Barnes killed his parents.

Tony dedicates himself in the coming months to tracking down Barnes and finding out what happened to him. He finds Rogers, and, furious he’d been lied to by the man who was his friend, they get in a fight. Tony breaks his arm. Rogers breaks his, too. They split apart, and Steve disappears again, hiding with whoever he rescued.

Tony doesn’t stop his pursuit, but he has to wait to be healed before he goes into more fights. Accidents happen in the future. He slips up and nearly blows himself to pieces in the lab. 

He probably won’t see Rogers again, and doesn’t expect to be on the same side.

The Avengers, slowly and quietly, fall apart, just like Zemo wanted, in strange, jagged edges. Natasha goes completely off-grid. Falcon operates without a license, spotted with Steve Rogers (sans shield). Wanda and Vision play catch me if you can all along the east coast, her powers allowing her to duck his unerring pursuit at every meeting, just barely out of reach.

Scott Lang is put on house arrest, escaping jail on Tony’s word alone, for his actions in the jailbreak. Tony visits, from time to time, but it’s nothing but cordial. Scott blames him for his sentence. Tony blames him for their escape. They are not close.

Tony’s friends scatter to the winds, and the Avengers, as fragile as they are, will not be prepared for the next threat.

The thought keeps him up at night.


End file.
